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A serious business for collectors... posters from classic
Australian films from the 1940s and '50s, Forty Thousand
Horsemen and A Town Like Alice.

Christie's tonight auctions memorabilia from a golden
age of cinema, writes Claire Halliday.

A collection of movie posters going under the hammer through
Christie's auction house makes a unique find for collectors.

When the gavel is raised tonight, one particular lot on offer
might be a far cry from the usual assortment of high-brow paintings
and heirloom vases but, to collectors of movie memorabilia, it
could be just as important.

"Collecting movie posters has risen in popularity dramatically
in the last 10 years and that has been shown by their increased
value," says Christie's Melbourne director of decorative arts,
Richard Gordon.

"It's an art form that is affordable, understandable and one
that is also nostalgic for people who want to look back over an era
in cinema that has gone," says Gordon, who expects tonight's
offerings to attract bids of several hundred dollars.

The 29 posters for auction tonight, says Gordon, are more than
just happy, fuzzy reminders of the rolling-Jaffas-down-the-aisle
time of classic Australian films such as Smiley, Forty
Thousand Horsemen and A Town Like Alice.

What makes the posters particularly unique, says Gordon, is the
fact that, in addition to capturing a slice of Australian film
history, they were largely printed in the US and UK.

With the overseas re-release of the films came the occasional
name change. Charles Chauvel's Sons of Matthew appears as
The Rugged O'Riordans and Ken Hall's classic Dad and
Dave Come To Town was retitled as The Farmer Goes To
Town.

"Some people will find them more interesting because some of the
details are so different but the serious collectors might not be as
keen," says Gordon.

And movie poster collecting is, it seems, a very serious
business. A quick trawl of the internet reveals a variety of movie
poster-selling sites - most notably that of the Queensland-based
memorabilia king, John Reid (www.moviemem.com), where posters
from every imaginable local and international movie can be found at
prices that vary from the affordable to the extravagant.

"You can buy movie posters for as little as $20 but the record
was set at $180,000 for a 1931 poster of Frankenstein,"
says local movie buff Trevor Rasmussen.

Of most interest to movie poster collectors, Rasmussen says, are
science-fiction or horror classics.

"Then you have the timeless classics, like Breakfast At
Tiffany's, that are always very sought after," he says.

In Australian cinematic terms, though, Rasmussen believes that
tonight's collection charts an important part of the life cycle of
Australian film-making.

"They cover a very important and interesting era from 1935-1959.
For most people, collecting movie posters is really about
collecting something that you really love. The main thing to look
for is posters that are in good condition," Rasmussen says.